The Court of International Trade in a Sept. 28 opinion upheld the Commerce Department's remand results in a case on the antidumping duty investigation of metal lockers from China. Previously, the court sustained Commerce's use of Turkey as the primary surrogate country but remanded the inclusion of rental income and treatment of interest income in calculating Turkish firm Ayes Celikhasir VE CT's profit as part of the surrogate value calculation. In its redetermination, the agency further explained how it treated shipping revenue, incentive income, interest income and rental income in setting the selling, general and administrative expense ratio. No party contested the remand results.

The Court of International Trade in a Sept. 26 opinion remanded the Commerce Department's 2018 review of the countervailing duty order on corrosion-resistant steel products from South Korea. Judge M. Miller Baker said that Commerce incorrectly found that the South Korean government's provision of port-usage rights to respondent Hyundai Steel Co. was a countervailable benefit. Since the exporter built the port and was given the right to collect third-party fees in exchange, the port-usage rights are not a benefit but more akin to "consideration."

The Court of International Trade in a Sept. 26 opinion upheld the Commerce Department's countervailing duty investigation into oil country tubular goods from South Korea. Judge Mark Barnett said Commerce properly hit exporter SeAH Steel Corp. with adverse facts available due to its failure to submit information on its use of the Korean Export-Import Bank Performance Guarantee program prior to the investigation period. The judge said that while a "plain-text reading of Commerce's" instructions shows that the exporter was only required to submit information from the 2020 review period, it falls on the respondent "to clarify its understanding of Commerce's directive" instead of relying on its own interpretation.

The Commerce Department legally excluded importer Siffron's plastic shelf dividers from the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on raw flexible magnets from China, the Court of International Trade ruled in a Sept. 26 opinion. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves said Commerce reasonably determined that the scope language and the (k)(1) sources, including prior scope rulings and a report from the International Trade Commission, established that the dividers did not belong in the scope of the orders.

The Court of International Trade in a Sept. 21 opinion granted parts and denied parts of importer Second Nature Designs' motion for judgment in a customs case on decorative items of plant parts. Judge Gary Katzmann said he agreed with Second Nature that "certain categories" of the imports should be classified as "dried items and curled items" under subheading 0604.90.30, free of duty. But for other categories, the court sided with the government's classification as "artificial flowers or fruit" under 0604.90.60, dutiable at 7%. Factual issues plague the remaining categories, the judge said, denying motion for summary judgment on those goods.

The Court of International Trade in a Sept. 20 opinion upheld the Commerce Department's decision to find that importer SMA Surface's Twilight product does not qualify for the crushed glass surface products exclusion under the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on quartz surface products from China. Judge Gary Katzmann said SMA Surfaces waived its objections to this finding, which Commerce issued on remand, when the importer "did not brief any arguments specific to Commerce's analysis and explanation." Additionally, the judge said the remand results "adequately addressed" the importer's preliminary objections.

The Court of International Trade in a Sept. 19 opinion remanded the International Trade Commission's affirmative injury finding in the countervailing duty investigations on phosphate fertilizers from Morocco and Russia. Judge Stephen Vaden said the commission did not properly support its "central" conclusion that the imports depressed prices because their significant volumes "created oversupply conditions in a declining market and low prices." Noting this finding "undergirds" the remaining statutory considerations -- volume, price effects and impact -- Vaden remanded the undersupply analysis with special instructions to also reconsider the volume, price and impact analyses should the commission stick with its initial conclusion.

The Court of International Trade in a Sept. 19 opinion upheld the Commerce Department's remand results in an antidumping case on South Korean large power transformers, which allowed respondent Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. to supplement its questionnaire response by providing additional information pertaining to service-related revenues and expenses. The remand period was opened following a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruling that Hyundai should have been given the chance to supplement the record and that Commerce's use of partial adverse facts available was "unsupported by substantial evidence." No party contested the record, so Judge Mark Barnett upheld the remand results.

The Court of International Trade in a Sept. 14 opinion remanded elements and sustained elements of the Commerce Department's countervailing duty investigation into phosphate fertilizers from Morocco.

The Court of International Trade upheld parts and remanded parts of the Commerce Department's 2019-20 review of the antidumping duty order on tapered roller bearings from China. Judge Stephen Vaden said Commerce "failed to consider the necessary factors" established by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit before it used partial adverse facts available against respondent Shanghai Tainai Bearing Co. due to its suppliers' noncompliance. The agency also failed to justify its decision to deduct surcharges Shanghai Tainai included as extra profit in addition to Section 301 duties when calculating U.S. price, Vaden said. However, the judge sustained Commerce's remaining positions, including its insistence that it deduct the Section 301 duties from U.S. price.